Last we saw the Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts they were avoiding watching the Saleslady and the Bartender do things with body parts they know longer had. This is what happened the next day.
The next day the bodyless ghirl ghosts decided to get clean. Since they don’t have clothes they only have to clean themselves and their hair. Their preferred way to do this is to bob in a bubble bath as it fills, before the person who is filling it comes back to take his or her own bath. They try to get out of the tub and be gone before that happens but occasionally they forget and are still in among the bubbles when the person gets in. Some of the ghirl ghosts actually like that, and they float around the person’s body, rubbing up against parts, being naughty. Greta, the sexy Ghirl Ghost likes it best and the other ghirl ghosts often have to come back to get her. Especially if its a man in the tub. She likes making his body parts change shape and him having no idea why. She also likes to do that on busses at the most inconvenient time, right before the man is about to stand up to get off. She’s naughty, like I said.
They do this by going into strangers’ houses or apartments. But this day the hotel they were staying at had a busted water heater and so there was no hot water anywhere in the whole hotel. They decided to go to the laundromat they saw down the street and see if they could get in one of the washers. They had seen the washers with the big front windows with a lot of soapy bubbles and thought that would work just fine.
They noticed a father with his young daughter about to put their clothes in one of the big tumbling machines. The door was open so while the father separated the clothes and the daughter checked all the pockets for change and gum, they floated in. They hid in the back of the washer until the door closed. Then they started talking, wondering if they would get as clean as in a bathtub. The father put the quarters in the machine and started it up.
The ghirl ghosts were excited, they had never washed themselves in a washing machine before. They were looking forward to all the nice hot soapy water sloshing all around. But that was not what they got. What they got was cold water. Very cold water. The father was about to set it to hot when the daughter reminded him that the load was all delicates and had to be washed on cold. The ghirl ghosts were not happy. They also had not really looked close at what a front loading washing machine does. They thought they would be jiggled back and forth a little bit. But instead they were tumbled. A lot. They got very very dizzy and cold and were not having fun.
Sharita looked out the window of the washing machine and saw the daughter pointing into the window and looking at her father. Sharita could barely hear her above the bubbly din of the machine. She thought she heard her say, “Look Daddy, there are a whole bunch of ghosts in the machine!”
The father peered in and said, “That’s funny I can’t see them. What do they look like?”
The daughter said, “You can’t see them? They are right there!” By this time all the ghirl ghosts were looking out the window staring at her.
They all started to yell and scream that they were cold and dizzy and wanted the machine to stop. The daughter looked at the dad and said, “Daddy, I can here them, they are cold and dizzy and want us to stop the machine so they can get out!”
The father responded, “Well, I guess we better do that then.” and stopped the machine, opened the door and said, “Ok, ghosts come on out, you are free!”
The ghosts all said “THANK YOU!” very load and flew out of the machine. The daughter told her father, “Did you hear that? They said thank you!”
The father said, “Well, I am sure they are thankful, I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a cold washing machine, would you?”
“NO!” said the daughter as they started the machine back up.
The 13 Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts immediately flew out into the street and back to their hotel, which by that time had fixed the hot water heater. They went from bathroom to bathroom taking warm bubble baths the rest of the day. Greta especially had a very fun time!
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Drawing and story by Marty Coleman, who once had a birthday present hidden in a washing machine when he was nine. It was a sleeping bag.
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